Men lie

When left unchecked, all built up respression breaks down. On a long enough timeline, every man is susceptible to the morally degrading nature of the lawlessness. Conrad's Heart of Darkness illustrates this principle through such an esteemed man as Kurtz. The Darkness is what causes this moral degradation. Darkness is more abstract of a concept than lack of light however and stems its strength from the unknowing it wraps the mind in. A reoccuring symbol throughout the novella, darkness not only represents what we fear but also what we fear we will fear. Darkness gives people a rational to abandon all preconcieved notions of right and wrong and adopt whatever the situation seems to require. The difference between our desires and our actions could not be greater and the Darkness is the perfect realm for the id to reveal whom it really is.

Heart of Darkness provides a stage for the debate between dream vs. reality. Not only in the sense that we have discussed in class about whether or not Marolow is truly experiencing this or not, but in the sense of what people expect from a situation and what they actually get. Marlow was more than excited before his trip up the congo and after he will never see things in as innocent a way. Dreams in terms of expectations and reality in terms of how things actually turn out.

Rough Idea

The source of Marlow's psychosis is from the lack of structure that defines and creates the darkness of Africa. There are no laws nor those to enforce them, resulting in an anarchistic arena in which people's darkest and deepest fantasies may be pursued. "Both he and Conrad penetrated into the darkness, the darkness entered into when people sleep or when their consciences sleep, when they are free to pursue secret wishes, whether in dreams, like Freud's analysands, or in actuality, like Kurtz and his followers."(Karl). You spend enough time living in a world in which there are no consequences for your actions and you yourself become a savage. In fact, because the savages can be outwardly savage, they are not as "dangerous" as the English; the English have been repressing their instinctual desires for their entire lives so when placed in a world where they can entertain them, the results can be far more detrimental.

Heart of Darkness: A Psychological Journey

Heart of Darkness is not about the physical journey of a man traveling in Africa, but rather the psychological journey of a man traveling in an unkown, hostile land. As the story progresses, so does Marlow's psychosis. Marlow is meant as more of an everyman main character than anything else. He is simply a vehicle for the intense mental reshaping that takes place while on the Congo. Starting out very sophisticated and elaborate, his writing style becoming more disjointed and nonsensical. He struggles with what he is seeing and Conrad wants the reader to struggle understanding what Marlow says just as he is struggling with what he sees.

Heart of Darkness Q.6

The message Kurtz is sending with the painting of "a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch" is one of irony. There are two main symbols present in the painting: a woman carrying a lighted torch, which is most certainly meant to respresent lady liberty, and a blindfold, which most commonly refers to the concept of true justice. The amalgamation of the two symbols is what is most interesting. The irony stems from the pairing; instead of rendering lady liberty more just, the blindfold simply narrows the scope of her vision creating a more ignorant than just liberty. At this point I do not think Marlow would agree with the message of the painting because he seemed very uneasy when telling the story.

Heart of Darkness Q.2

London, to the Romans, was uncivilized, savage, and a mystery. Africa, to the British, is a dark spot on the map. Conrad starts the novel with this tale of old London to illustrate a point about the hypocrasy of British colonialism. Marlow is drawing this parallel. Marlow does go on to explain the distinctions between the two groups but the point has already been made. My favorite quote from our first reading: "The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."